Kitchen Stool

[Ben Ellenberger]

This was an attempt at making a staked stool. I’d made one a few years ago that came out decent, but otherwise I’ve really only made joined furniture. I more or less followed the techniques Christopher Schwartz demonstrates. I made this with a slight forward lean and the height is 24” at the front of the stool. I’ll use this at home for a while, I may try it out at work too. We have standing desks, but I find myself leaving mine at seat height all day. I think my back may be happier if I spend more time not in a chair.

this came out decent. I tried to drill the first stretcher mortise using regular twist drill bits. That was a bad idea and getting a spade bit made the rest come out much better. I still need to get a Forstner bit to finish holes. I used twist bits on this and they made a bit of a mess. I’d also like to get a tenon cutter for the stretcher tenons. I got close with a spokeshave then finished these off with a dowel plate. Between the raggedy mortises and the raggedy tenons, I had to use thickened epoxy for the stretcher joints.

I used gouges to rough shape the seat, then a shop-made wooden compass plane to refine the shape. I did several rounds of testing and adjusting, and I think I ended up with something pretty comfortable.

This was a fun project that let me try some new techniques. I’d be willing to try some more stools and chairs in the future after using this for practice.

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[Jim Koepke]

It looks nice Ben.

jtk

[Cameron Wood]

Nice. I like the faceted legs.

[jack dempsey]

Ben, that is a great looking stool. I can see after this success why you may want to make others.

[Ben Ellenberger]

So I eat meals at my kitchen counter every day. I would have told you my old stool was fine, but my back has been feeling much better since I started using this one. I may be a convert to stools with angled seats.

I did cut down the height slightly. I originally made it with the front edge close to 25” high (compared to 24 3/8” on my old stool). I dropped it to about 24 1/2”, which is feeling about right..